Court issues warrant for Indonesian al-Qaida follower

A Seoul district court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for a 32-year-old Indonesian migrant worker suspected of supporting international terrorist group the Nusra Front, an affiliate of al-Qaida.

Judge Lee Seung-kyu of Seoul Central District Court said he was accepting the police’s request to arrest the Indonesian man, acknowledging the reason for detention based on evidence presented.

The National Police Agency on Thursday detained the Indonesian at his residence in South Chungcheong Province on suspicions of violating the Immigration Control Law and forging documents. 

The police raided his residence and confiscated a bowie knife, a model of an M16 rifle and a number of books on Islamic fundamentalism. They also found a debit card and bankbooks under different names.

The man, who entered Korea on a forged passport in 2007, is suspected of having supported the Nusra Front, a Syrian al-Qaida affiliate, through social media for months.

He was found to have posted on social media a video clip of himself waving the terrorist group’s flag atop a local mountain in April. He also uploaded a photo of himself wearing a cap with the group’s logo at Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul’s most frequented tourist destination.

The police said they would expand their investigation into the man, saying he could be capable of carrying out terrorist attacks here if he received instructions from the Nusra Front.

Al-Nusra, which was founded in Syria in 2011 at the command of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, aims to establish an Islamist state in Syria, mostly through carrying out bombing, guerilla and suicide attacks. It has links to al-Qaida, and has grown into an international terrorist group with an estimated 10,000 members.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)